Fortifying the religion against distortion
It is indispensable for the man possessed of supreme authority who brings from God a religion which supersedes other religions that he fortify his religion against being penetrated by distortion, and this is because he unites many nations having manifold prosensities and dissimilar goals. Often people are misled by their self interest or their love for the religion which they followed previously, their deficient understanding when reasoning takes place, as a result they miss many beneficial purposes and they neglect what the religion had explicitly assigned, or they interpolate into it something extrinsic, and the religion becomes corrupted as occurred in many religions.
Then, since a through investigating in recognizing the avenues of the interpolation of unsoundness is not possible, for they are limitless and undetermined- and what cannot be completely achieved cannot be totally abandoned- he must warn them most strongly of the causes of dissertatations in a comprehensive way. He must single out the issues which he surmises will contain or cause laxity or disortion, or which will provoke a permanent malady among humans. He must block the entrance of corruption into them in the most complete way, and he must legislate a thing which is contrary to the familiar ways of the corrupted religions in whichever elements are most prominent among them, such as prayers.
Among the sources of distortions are corrupt intentions leading to false exegesis such as when people try to please the rulers. God Almighty says "Those who conceal what God revealed in the scripture and purchase a small gain with this, are those who will eat nothing in their bellies except fire"
Among the sources of distortion is the spread of evil things and the abondoning of the schorlars. God Almighty says "If only there had been in the generations before you people of excellence forbidding coruption on the earth, as did a few of those whom we saved. ..."
The Prophet Muhammed (P.b.u.h) said about the Children of Israel falling into acts of disobedience, "Their religious schorlars forbade them these things, but they did not abstain from them, then they (the religious scholars) sat in their meetings and they ate in their company and they drank with them, so then God made their hearts beat in the same rhythm, and cursed them on the tongues of David and Jesus the son of Marry; and this was due to their disobedience and transgression."
Among the causes of of distortion is being excessively strict, and the true nature of this is choosing austerities in worship which the law-giver did not command such as continual fasting, praying whole night long, retiring from the world, remaining celibate, and making the recommended practices and proper manners just as compulsory as the obligatory.
Among the causes of distortion is following the consensus and the true nature of this is is that a group of the bearers of the religion, whom the masses believe hold the correct opinion most of the time or always, agree; so the people think that this is a conclusive proof of the ruling, while this is a consensus on a matter.
Among them is the intermingling of one religion with another religion until one is not distinguishable from the other. This occurs when a person previously professes another religion, he retains an emotional attachment to the branches of knowledge of this group. Then when the person joins a new religion the inclination of his heart to what it had previously been attached remains, and consequently he will seek advice (to make room for those things) in this new religion, even if this is weak or fabricated. The Prophet Muhammed (P.b.u.h) said: "The situation of the Children of Israel was balanced until there arose among them those of mixed descent and the children of prisoners of nations so they spoke on the basis of their own opinions and went astray and led (others) astray."
